The Rock's 14 Greatest Moments Since His 2011 Return

This article was typed up in room 101, Smackdown Hotel, Jabroni Drive, Know Your Role Boulevard.

Finally, after a seven year absence, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson returned to his spiritual home on February 14th, 2011. After quietly retiring from the ring in 2004 to make the full-time transition to Hollywood, DJ enjoyed huge success as he garnered massive exposure on the big-screen with a string of box office hits. Save for extremely rare cameos on Raw and Smackdown, infamously via satellite, and the 2008 Hall of Fame ceremony (where he inducted his father Rocky Johnson and grandfather Peter Maivia), we wouldn't see the People's Champ back in the ring until February 11th 2011, where he was revealed as the surprise guest host of Wrestlemania 27. Rock's return gave the company a huge shot in the arm in terms of mainstream popularity, and the rivalry with John Cena was arguably the company's most high-profile since his battles with Stone Cold Steve Austin during the attitude era. Despite the odd lowlight (promo notes on his wrist and getting booed as he aided Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble), the Great One proved to the world that not only could he still work the mic better than the vast majority of the current WWE roster, but he could still cut in between the ropes too, as evidenced by the matches with Cena and CM Punk. In just a few weeks we'll get our next Rock appearance, this time at Wrestlemania 32 in Dallas, Texas. With that in mind, let's recap on the Brahma Bull's finest moments since his 2011 comeback.

14. New Day Rocks

We start the countdown with his most recent WWE TV appearance as he engaged in some verbal jousting with the The New Day on the January 25 edition of Raw. New Day hyped themselves for their recent successes, including against Rock's own cousins The Usos, before the Great One would taunt the Tag Team champions for their unicorn horns, which apparently looked like lama penises stuck to their heads. Classic Rock banter, you might say. The Usos came out to help their cousin and as a collective they soon sent the heels packing, with a People's Elbow thrown in on Xavier Woods for good measure. Pitting The Rock and the members of the New Day together was always going to go down a treat, and the Miami crowd certainly got their money's worth. These days, it's probably the closest we'll get to see Rock getting physical in anything even closely resembling an actual match again considering his massively busy schedule going into 2016 and beyond. Still, with Wrestlemania 32 just round the corner and his confirmed involvement, hopefully he's got another Rock Bottom and a People's Elbow up his sleeve still waiting to be delivered.
Contributor
Contributor

Multimedia Sports Journalist based in London. Sports obsessive (real or pre-determined!) who really should get out more. Twitter: @nick_sellers